Coalition Against Genocide calls for the continuation of Visa an on Modi

It has come to our attention that the Chief Minister of Gujarat, Mr. Narendra Modi is once again planning to apply for a visa to enter the United States. We urge the State Department not to allow Mr. Modi to enter the country under any conditions, as the circumstances under which he was denied a visa in 2005 remain largely unchanged, and the minority communities in his state continue to face systematic human rights violations.

The United States should not unwittingly be the platform from which these unrepentant and yet ascendant forces in India exploit the opportunity to rally the support base among Indian Diaspora communities and raise international legitimacy and standing. It would be dangerous at this juncture of Indian political process to give Mr. Modi that long denied and therefore much coveted window.

Not only was Mr. Modi responsible for the deaths of over 2,000 Muslims and the displacement of 200,000 more, but six years after the Gujarat-state sponsored violence, the Muslim community in Gujarat is subjected to a devastating economic and social boycott, institutionalized at every level. Most have received little, if no compensation for the deaths of loved ones and loss of property; thousands are still displaced, without homes, work, or access to decent schools for their children. At the level of the courts too, Muslims in Gujarat have received little justice, barring a few exceptions; and the few that have managed to push their cases forward have met with threats, physical harm and harassment.

As recently as April 2008, Mr. Modi enacted the anti-conversion law in Gujarat that effectively bars religious conversions, thereby crippling the provisions of religious freedom in the state.

In a recent expose by the investigative magazine Tehelka, the Gujarat state prosecutor appointed by Mr. Modi was captured on video confessing to protecting the perpetrators of the 2002 violence. Further, one of the accused involved in the killings, confessed to Mr. Modi having transferred several court judges as to protect him from any convictions.

Noting the prejudice extending at every level of the state apparatus, the Supreme Court ordered cases related to the 2002 massacres to be moved out of Gujarat.

Mr. Modi has not only expressed no remorse for the 2002 violence; but he has continued to justify them, as he has a spate of extra judicial killings (fake "encounter killings") by his police. And, the state continues to persecute civil society groups who have been trying to speak up for the victims under very difficult circumstances.

The Coalition Against Genocide includes a diverse spectrum of organizations associated with Indian Americans that have come together in response to the Gujarat Genocide to demand justice and accountability. This letter has been endorsed by the following constituent organizations of the Coalition Against Genocide:

3 comments:

These Muslim thugs at CAG are not forming "coalition" against the people MUSLIM thugs killed in Godhra. GENOCIDE? do these less educated people at CAG even know what it means. Hyder Khan should be banned in India. Terrorist thugs.